[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
14

Brian didn’t like hospitals, it was a proven fact. He hated them when he was little and even now that he was completely grown and healthy, they just gave him the eebie jeebies. He didn’t say much as he and AJ left for the hospital and now that they were sitting on two very uncomfortable chairs in the eerily vacant emergency room, he looked at his friend and didn’t really know what he wanted to say.

AJ was also not very talkative. In fact, he seemed far away. His wrist had stopped hurting and was now just throbbing; he kind of felt guilty for carrying on the way he did. He knew he made things worse for Howie and the one thing he didn’t want to do was make things worse for a guy who over the years, had managed to get him out of a fair share of trouble.

They both just sat there staring at each other in an uncomfortable silence, thankful when a doctor finally came in to look over AJ’s injury and even more thankful when that same doctor said it was probably nothing more than a nasty sprain.

“Glad it’s not broken” Brian said hesitantly while messing around with some tongue depressors that were left in his reach.

“Well, he said MAYBE, I think, that’s the word we have to really be cautious of” Leave it to AJ to be a drama queen, Brian thought as one of the depressors flew out of his hand and landed on the floor.

“Nice one Rok. I can’t take you anyplace” Brian bent down and picked up the wooden stick, “God, I don’t think they ever clean under these gurneys. It’s gross down here”

“Jeez Brian just get up off the floor” AJ smiled when a nurse walked by, afraid that they would be thrown out of the hospital before he even got a nice shot of some pain medication. Any pain medication; he wasn’t picky. He subconsciously started to once again feel a pain in his wrist.

Brian was now up and wiping the dust off of his hands, “Boy you weren’t kidding were you?” AJ said when he noticed the small cloud of dust Brian was making. He laughed at the way Brian was just roaming around the small area they were assigned to, “You remind me of Kaos you know that?”
Brian stopped pacing, “How so?”

“You guys hang around together too much”

“Why?”

“You just do, he would have done the same exact thing with those tongue doohickies”

Brian laughed, “You’re probably right…I wonder how the meeting is going?”

AJ shrugged, “Don’t know I’m just kind of glad I’m not there to find out” Brian nodded in agreement just as a new doctor walked in. Both men stopped and looked at the guy, who seemed like he was in a really awful mood.

“Alex McLean?

“Yes, that’s me” AJ said holding up his semi bandaged wrist.

“I am supposed to take you down for some more x-rays and bloodwork”

“Bloodwork?” Brian asked a little curious.

“Why would I need bloodwork? All I have is a sprained wrist”

“Doctor’s orders” Once again AJ shrugged and got into the wheelchair, “Can my friend come with me?”

“No, I’m afraid not but he can wait in the chairs right outside”

“Sir, is there somewhere a little more private that I can sit? We are celebrities and I don’t want to be recognized” If the man looked disgusted before it was nothing compared to the way he looked now.

“I suppose there is a special room you could wait in right down the hall” He said as sarcastically as possible. He then pointed off in a random direction down a random corridor. Brian wanted to ask the jerk to elaborate but didn’t feel like being a bother.

“Take care man, I’ll be over…uh there I guess” He said pointing to the hallway. AJ laughed.

“Later Rok”

Brian looked on as AJ was wheeled down the corridor and out of the swinging doors before he attempted to find this mystery room. He supposed he could just ask at the front desk; but that one guy made him kind of paranoid about sounding stupid. He hated people with attitudes, so often he wanted to say, “You know it takes more effort to frown then smile” That was his Mom’s absolute favorite expression and he liked to use it often with the guys; especially Kevin. No matter what, it would bring a smile to his cousin’s face. That’s what he would do; he would call and leave a voicemail for Kevin saying those words. Even if the meeting was as horrendous as he assumed it would be, that should lighten the mood again. He had made up his mind that after he found this mystery waiting room for the stars, he would make that call.

He walked up to the nurse’s station and smiled at the young nurse on duty. She didn’t seem to recognize him but being in the states he was kind of used to that. Even though they did have a following here it wasn’t yet that big. He was hoping that would change. Suddenly he felt really dumb for requesting a private waiting area in the first place. He could probably stand right in the middle of the emergency room and go unnoticed. He was just about to walk away when the nurse acknowledged his presence.

“Yes can I help you with something?” She sounded very friendly. That was a refreshing change.

“Um…yeah I was wondering if there was a private waiting room I could use while I waited for my friend?” She looked past him to the bodyguard that had escorted them to the hospital.

“Sure…I can put you in one of the rooms down the hall”

“Thanks so much”

“Not a problem…you are a singer right?” Brian nodded wishing that obnoxious nurse, doctor or whatever he was could have seen that he had been recognized.

“I like your music” She said through a wink. He wasn’t even sure if she knew who he actually was but he smiled anyway.

“Someone should be coming to get your friend in a little while; we are kind of backed up right now. I hope that’s not a problem”

“Actually some guy just brought him down to x-ray a few minutes ago”

“No, that’s impossible; they called and said they are backlogged” Brian glanced over at the bodyguard they brought with them, which caused him to come immediately over.

“It was a guy; some guy said his doctor ordered bloodwork and an x-ray”

The nurses calm demeanor went out the window as she nervously searched for his chart. “That’s possible…maybe they took him down for the bloodwork first”

Brian didn’t like how she said that, kind of like she didn’t believe it but was saying it purely for his benefit. “Why don’t you call down there then?” he suggested.
She nodded and picked up the phone. Brian started to bite at his bottom lip. He didn’t like the feelings that were running through him, anxiety and anger. She moved away from the desk a bit so this way no one could here her conversation, “I am going down there to check it out myself” The bodyguard said. He felt bad that he hadn’t even learned the guys name yet. The whole idea of security was so new to him, he couldn’t quite comprehend why they needed people to keep watch over them, until that nurse walked back not a minute later, “I’m sorry your friend is not down at X-ray, they are looking for him now, maybe he was brought to the wrong place” After she said that and his heart began to race, he suddenly found a better understanding about why they needed to be kept safe.

~*~*~*~*~*

Before entering the big intimidating office of Mr. Johannes Fink over at Jive; Kevin stopped just short of the door, “Okay guys, Remember let me do most of the talking. Nick you sit in-between Howie and I. I don’t want you sitting on the end and drifting off into your dream world. Normally a comment like that would have made Nick argue or roll his eyes and comment under his breath, but this time he just nodded.

“It’s not like he’s going to bite our heads off or anything right?” Nick asked looking from one boy to the other hoping to see a firm shake of the head, when there was nothing but blank looks staring back at him he really began to panic. “Why couldn’t I go with AJ?”

“Relax and it’s because YOU got us partly into this mess…that’s why” Kevin answered placing a calming hand on Nick’s shoulder.

They walked into to the huge office. Howie had only been there a few days earlier. Only a few days but it felt like years ago, that he had met with this guy. Isn’t this how this whole mess got started? He caught himself glancing over to the office that he had found the guy crying in. The door was closed and a name was now on it. If he had only waited until today to have his meeting with Fink, he would have never encountered the guy at all.

Fate. Sometimes it really sucked.

Fink was sitting on his desk, sipping on a coffee just waiting for the boys to make their way into the room. There already seated were about four men in suits and carrying briefcases. Johnnie Wright was also their looking as nervous and everyone felt.

“My…my…my we certainly have gotten ourselves into a pretty pickle haven’t we boys?” Fink asked while smirking. Smirking? That was a good sign right? He wasn’t cursing or yelling and screaming, but smiling.

“Johannes, Lou extends his apologies for not being able to attend since he is away on business” Johnnie said very professionally. Fink nodded while the four well dressed suits stared.

The boys sat in the order that Kevin had suggested with Nick in the middle. He was already fidgeting crossing one leg over the other and then switching positions. They weren’t even in the room for ten minutes when Nick got his first of many pokes from Kevin.

“Let me get straight to the point gentlemen…cute baby faces who do nothing wrong sell records in this business, not perverted guys who go into strip clubs in the middle of the afternoon” Fink said this last line looking directly at Howie who chose to nod and look down at the floor.

“I mean, I have enough people on this label who get in trouble with the law, they have an older audience, so even though it’s a pain in my ass, it helps sell records…now if you getting in trouble helped to sell records I would say good for you, go to some xxx theater and get busted. That’s not the case” Now he stood and walked over to Nick, which of course made the teenager squirm, “This however…baby face blue eyed heart throb who has millions of kids looking up to him should not get into trouble. You think Mommy will let Suzy go out and buy your albums after hearing you were in a strip club?” Nick shook his head even though he didn’t really agree with the guy.

“Exactly, then why is it we shouldn’t drop you guys right now before the shit really hits the fan?” He was once again staring at Nick, but it was Howie who answered, “Because it will never happen again”

“Really?” Can you guarantee me that Howie?”

“Absolutely”

“Can you guarantee all the parents who will be sending us bitch mail?” Once again he nodded. Boy he really felt like crap.

“Mr. Fink, I know this was an unfortunately incident but I think our image aside that people would still buy our stuff based on our talent”

“Kevin we would like to think so, but nowadays talent is only a small reason people buy albums”

Fink made his way over to the other businessmen in the room, “We have decided to keep you on our label” He said after a few minutes of silence, “But we have to o something in order to squelch the rumors about you guys going top this Lion’s Den place”

“But we did go…so technically it’s not a rumor” Both Kevin and Howie poked at Nick as soon as he opened his mouth.

“No you didn’t!” fink suddenly raised his voice causing the young blonde to flinch. “I don’t care if it’s lying. You were not at that place. You never were and the second you tell anyone otherwise we are releasing you from our contract. Got it?” All three boys nodded. “It happens all the time boys, eventually everyone will forget this incident and it will go away; until then I suggest you stay out of the spotlight for a while”

Johnnie stood up to shake Fink’s hand; all the boys took that as a cue to do the same. They walked out of the room and didn’t breathe until the door was shut on them. “Well, that went well” Johnnie said wiping the sweat off of his neck. “You guys were lucky this time”

“We know” Kevin answered. “STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!” He scolded and then he made his way out of the building and probably to a bar. Howie once again stood in that corridor, right outside Fink’s office staring at the door where all his troubles started.

“What’s wrong D?” He jumped at Kevin’s words, “Oh…it’s nothing, come on let’s get out of here”

“I wonder how AJ is doing” Nick said stopping at a water fountain and taking a drink. “It’s hot as hell in here”

“This is nothing; you should have felt it a few days ago”

“I am going outside, I’ll see you guys out there” Kevin said wiping his own sweat away from his forehead and walking towards the exit. Nick waved as he continued to drink.

While they were stopped Howie whipped out his cell phone and decided to give AJ and Brian a call. He got Brian’s voicemail “Hey B it’s Howie…the meeting went well, just checking up on you guys, give us a call to let us know how things turned out for ya”

“No answer?” Nick asked wiping away the excess water from his chin. Now Howie went to the water fountain, “No answer” He replied right before bending down to take a sip.

“Hey D…isn’t that the chick you were talking to when we were here the last time?” Howie stood, not even bothering to wipe his mouth and was greeted by Jessica, who was staring at him.